“In a cramped, carpeted amphitheater in the basement of Troy Buchanan High School, 69 students are waiting to die.

“You’ll know when it pops off,” says Robert Bowen, the school’s campus police officer. “If you get engaged with one of the shooters, you’ll know it.”

“When you get shot, you need to close your fingers and keep ‘em in,” adds Tammy Kozinski, the drama teacher. “When the bad guy and the police come through, they’ll step all over you, and who will be saying they’re sorry?”

“Nobody!” the students cry in unison.

“This isn’t a bizarre, premeditated mass murder or some twisted sacrifice led by a student cult. These are the 20 minutes preceding an active shooter drill, the 13th one Missouri’s Lincoln County school district has staged in the past year.

“All but 69 students have gone home for the day on early dismissal. These volunteer victims, mostly culled from the school’s drama class, are outfitted in fake-bloody bullet wounds, still wet and dripping down their foreheads, necks and chests. Bowen tells them what to expect: They’ll see “bad guys with AR-15s” shooting blanks during a simulated “passing period”—the moments when one class ends and the other begins. PVC pipes will be dropped on the floor to approximate IEDs. Crystal Lanham, a baby-faced freshman with long, gently-crimped brown hair, receives the dubious honor of being chosen as one of the gunmen’s hostages. She’s thrilled.

“A Cahokia mother said a school drill aimed at saving lives traumatized her child. She wants the district to make changes because the drill was too intense for young children.

“A’Lia Burrell is a third-grader at Penniman Elementary School. She didn’t understand that Wednesday’s “code red” was just a drill.

“While we were under the computers, I uh started to pray,” said Burrell.

“With all the stuff going on now a day I understand they need drills, but there’s a better way to go about it,” said Burrell’s mother, Jackie. “Now she doesn’t want to go to school and she’s scared.. When I came walking in the door earlier she said I thought you were an intruder.. that’s really affecting her right now.”

“She wants the district to dial it back for younger students and let parents know in advance. A’Lia told her, the police resource officer said something very disturbing.

“One of our school people said they are killing that way,” said Burrell.

“Cahokia Superintendent Art Ryan was not at the school for the drill. But after News 4 called, he asked the principal about this.

“I talked to the principal and she was with the resource officer the whole time and there was not a statement of anything like that,” said Ryan.

“He said in this day and age, he stands behind the intensity of the drill.

“The kids need to be prepared for an extreme circumstance so maybe have the drill be a little on the extreme side doesn’t hurt,” said Ryan. “I do understand your concerns about the age of the children, I’d much rather your children be a little bit scared and alive, than not knowing what to do and end up being hurt.”

“Drills like this one are mandated in both Illinois and Missouri along with tornado and fire drills.”